Critical Essay by Brian Boyd

In the following essay, Boyd argues that Shakespeare's play King John provided source material for The Troublesome Raigne of King John.

The debate goes on: is Shakespeare's King John a source or a derivative of the anonymous The Troublesome Raigne of King John (1591)? In 1989 “the ‘orthodox’ opinion that The Troublesome Raigne precedes King John” seemed to one critic “now … so strong as to need no further elaboration or support.”1 A year later, another made the best case yet for the “unorthodox” position that King John spawned rather than sprang from The Troublesome Raigne.2

Everyone concurs that The Troublesome Raigne is intimately related to...